Redemption
by Caepio
Summary: Set long before the events of the Marvel films - based on Norse mythology as told by the Prose Edda. After Loki cuts off all of Sif's hair as a joke, and makes an ill advised deal with two dwarves which he refuses to honor, Thor is sent to drag him back to Asgard to keep his word. Slight Thor/Loki.


Loki sat on the edge of a cliff, boots kicking at the loose chalky stones, sending pieces crumbling down into the tossing ocean beneath. He'd been far to the east and back, a half eaten pomegranate rested in his hands, the juice staining his lips, his fingertips, a deep red. Running from Thor was no trouble at all, really. He could practically have hidden himself in the stables of Asgarð and Thor would have been no closer to finding him than he had been with Loki in the east. He hoped the Aesir appreciated the effort he had made to choose a more easily findable spot, tired, at last, of sending him on a mad chase across the continents. He wasn't going to be caught unless he wanted it. He reasoned he could just as easily jump down from this cliff and turn into a sea hawk before he would have to submit to being dragged bodily back to Asgarð. Options were something he appreciated. Threats, he disliked strongly. They were far too effective. Thor was the only one any good at carrying them out however. That amused him, at times. Any trouble worth getting into, any trick worth being played, tended to involve Thor somewhere along the line. He was constantly having to find new ways of redeeming himself to the god. It had become almost a game - _Let's see how many new ways I can put himself back in Thor's graces. _And then, of course, how many new ways he could find to wind up pinned against a wall with an angry thunder-god yelling at him. He never meant to, of course. He didn't want every bone in his body under the threat of being snapped. It just tended to happen.

He heard footsteps on the pebbled shore beneath the cliff and he looked down, laughter breaking from him, carried away on the wind when he saw Thor looking up at him from hundreds of feet below, displeasure practically sparking like lightning around his form; he'd evidently heard Loki's laughter.

Loki slid back, away from the cliff's edge, crossing his legs beneath him instead, out of sight of Thor - half tempted, for a moment, to disappear as he intended to appear to have done, but having pity and figuring he owed Thor at least a moment's conversation before he slipped away and ran off again. He would go back to Asgarð eventually - he'd thought of a way out of his predicament already - but if the amusement of this chase could be prolonged, why not?

When Thor finally made his way off the shore and up onto the cliffs, Loki had half finished the pomegranate. He didn't really try to hide his smile as Thor sat down next to him, clearly somewhat out of breath. When he'd thought he'd let Thor catch him, his next thought had not been, "Lets make it an easy spot for him to get to."

Loki didn't say a word, giving Thor the half curtesy of a moment to catch his breath. He knew it would annoy. His silence usually did. It was out of character for him. If he didn't start talking immediately, trying to squirm his way out of a situation, it mean something bad for whoever had him pinned down. He knew Thor knew this. He couldn't help but smile in amusement at that. Apprehensive Thor was always amusing. As far as Loki knew, only he had that affect on him. He wanted to keep it that way.

The silence stretched on to the point that Thor became uncomfortable, Loki glanced at him out of the corner of his eye, bit into another pomegranate seed, and finally spoke,

"Mjölnir suits you. Are you pleased with it?"

"It is an excellent weapon." Thor replied, then, after another long, silent moment, "That isn't what I was sent to talk about though."

Loki smiled crookedly, his attention focused on the tiny, gemlike seed he was trying to pry loose from the white flesh of the pomegranate, "I doubt you were sent to _talk_ at all." He glanced at him out of the corner of his eye, "You're the mighty Þórr Einriði_. _You don't need to use words to get what you want." _Don't pretend that the last time we spoke you didn't have me pinned against a stone wall. _

"And you don't need those magicked boots of yours to get out of trouble."

Loki raised an eyebrow, "Don't I? I seem to recall that if I stayed I'd be without my head." He sighed softly, in such a way that Thor could not be sure if he was truly serious or not, "Of course, I imagine that's what you're here for. To drag me back. Force me to submit to the loss of my best asset." He laughed, taking another seed of the ripe fruit from its skin, "You'd better find someone else to tell your stories - once I'm gone, skillful speech will disappear right out of Asgarð." He leant forward, resting his arms on his knees, considering the horizon line, unsettled and hazy in the distance, like the shifting spine of a serpent, "Of course, I doubt that would concern you. I believe this whole saga started because you thought that an appropriate reaction to the loss of your wife's hair was to threaten to break every bone in my body." He glanced at Thor, his head tilted slightly to one side, as if considering, "Was that, honestly_, _an appropriate response?"

Thor shrugged, "If it wasn't, are you going to give me a lecture on honesty?"

Loki smiled slightly, his lips quirking upward. "No."

"Good." Thor said, standing up and brushing off the loose stalks of grass that clung to his clothes, "That was what I was supposed to be doing. Well. Not me personally. I'm supposed to drag you back for a lesson in keeping your word."

"Which I will continue not to do anyway-" Loki said disinterestedly, "But I appreciate the effort, I'm sure." He glanced at Thor, raising an eyebrow, "You wouldn't happen to have been sent by Brokk and Eitri did you?"

"You did break your word to them."

"I said I'd redeem my head to them. They refused." Loki shrugged, "Not my problem anymore." He smirked slightly, "Nice to know you've found a profitable employment - playing bounty hunter for dwarves."

"I think you've finally gotten caught."

"Oh?" Loki asked, "And why would you think that?"

"It's a situation you can't redeem yourself out of."

Loki sighed dramatically, "And here I was hoping that my significant efforts at redeeming myself to you might finally have persuaded you I can get myself out of anything."

Thor glanced at him out of the corner of his eye, "You redeemed yourself to Sif. I'm not so sure you've redeemed yourself to me this time around..."

"Does Mjölnir not count towards my redemption?" Loki raised an eyebrow, "Or are you displeased with it?"

"It is a little short in the handle." Thor said in as straight a tone as he could manage, rewarded with a sea-hawk like laugh from Loki, startling the birds that swooped over head.

"The hammer," Thor said carefully, "Was not your work... So that doesn't count. It's only here because you didn't think the dwaves could match Sif's hair and Skíðblaðnir."

Loki looked up at him, his laughter nearly incredulous, as much a mockery of Thor's tone as anything, "You believed me? You think Mjölnir, is the product of a miscalculation?"

Thor bristled, crossing his arms, "I didn't think you would have put your head on the line if you thought it was a serious risk."

"I had to make it worth it!" Loki responded, still laughing as if Thor's trust in his word was the funniest thing he'd come across yet that day, "A weapon like your hammer doesn't come without a cost. And I thought, given the _excellent_ opportunity the making of Sif's hair had created, I ought to take it as far as I could. Duty bound to do so really-" He smirked slightly, "Duty bound to you, Einriði. I wanted to _redeem_ myself."

"And now you have to redeem your head."

"You're very ungrateful, I hope you realize that." Loki said, a note of ill-temper in his tone, looking back out at the ocean, after a moment tossing a handful of pomegranate seeds out across the waves, watching them as they were caught by the wind.

"I'm not sure I should ever trust a gift from you."

"That is fair, I suppose. But still," He unwrapped his arms from around his knees, throwing himself back into the grass, looking up at Thor from upside down, his hair tangling with the clover, "Have I not fulfilled every point of the bargain I made with you? And then some? Your wife's hair restored- better than it was before, if I say so myself - a new weapon for you, powerful enough to destroy my kith and kin. Where in this have I failed?"

"I know of two dwarves who are nearly spitting fire about your methods for obtaining all these things."

Loki laughed, "Dwarves- the maggots of Ymir's flesh. I dislike honesty with lesser beings."

"You dislike it with higher ones too."

Loki smiled disarmingly, "Yet for you, Sönnungr, I will keep my word."

Thor was silent, disbelieving, and Loki finally crossed his arms behind his head, closing his eyes as if he had all the time in the world and Thor was not standing over him, and the whole court of Asgarð behind him, threatening the jǫtunn with a broken bargain.

"Am I going to have to drag you back to Asgarð?"

"The other option being returning willingly?" Loki asked without opening his eyes.

"Yes."

Loki hummed softly in mock consideration, "No, I think not."

"You made a deal, Loki."

Loki's eyes flashed open, looking up at Thor, "And I said I would redeem my head. I would offer them something of equal value in exchange."

"They do not believe it possible."

"That, as I said" Loki said repeated coldly, closing his eyes again, "Is not my problem."

"Odin orders you back."

"Orders you to drag me back." Loki corrected.

"If you're going to be difficult, yes."

Loki sighed, his eyes opening slowly, staring up unseeingly at the sky for a moment, his form shimmering in the grass, half starting a change into any number of creatures, Thor's hand tightened on Mjölnir, already as familiar a motion as any, unsure if Loki did this for his own amusement, to bring concern to Thor, or if he truly meant to shift away and fly off with an osprey's wings, or disappear into the grass like a thin green snake.

"I think," Loki said finally, his gaze flashing up to meet Thor's, "I will come." He stood up smoothly, shaking the leaves of clover from his hair, a twisting smile turning his lips up, "The dwarves can have my head. But they shall have to be careful my neck stays well clear of their knife. We had a bargain after all. My head for their treasures. And I'd hate to break the slightest part of our combined word." He threw a look back at Thor over his shoulder, a slow smile coming to his lips and he spun around, stepping closer to Thor, tilting his head up to be able to meet his gaze, so close Thor could feel his breath against his lips, "It's been a pleasure Einriði, I hope this in some way pays for my redemption." He slid his hand around, knotting his fingers in Thor's hair, pressing his lips to his in a fierce kiss, enough to leave Thor speechless and stunned, and then he stepped away, dropping the half finished pomegranate to the ground, tossing his words back over his shoulder before twisting suddenly and jumping from the edge of the cliff, diving down to the ocean, shedding his wingless form for another, "But for the rest, you'll have to catch me first."

"Damn it to Hel." Thor muttered, watching as the hawk-shape that was Loki disappeared in the distance, swooping low over the water, leaving clothes, and the half eaten pomegranate in the grass. Thor picked it up, taking one of the loose seeds and biting into it. It tasted like Loki. Or Loki tasted like it. He wasn't sure he wanted another chance to find out the difference. He started down the path from the cliffs to the sea, the pomegranate still in his hand, he had another long trek ahead of him searching for the trickster, he might as well eat it on the way.


End file.
